It's basically a way to get around school filters or other nanny software, and to leave few tracks on browser histories, etc.

So the prawxsie server loads the page, strips out any identifying info or javascript that filters might look for, disables any cookies or shortens the cookie duration, then serves the page up to the user. Get it? Prawxsie = Proxy. Of course, if the site "Prawxsie.com" is itself filtered out, then no dice.

Ahhh, neato! And again, happy birthday!

thanks!

Proxies are also used by trolls and other forms of delinquints, since they obscure the originating address of the user. As far as the target site is concerned, the request is coming from the proxy and not from the person using the proxie. Thus, they are often used by anyone wishing to e.g. create a bunch of sockpuppet accounts, troll with multiple accounts, post inflammatory crap, or otherwise just create havoc.

Wait, could I use this thing to get around the 'streaming media' block at work? Or to see some of the pages linked on MeCha that are randomly blocked for 'violence'?

It depends YG44. My company's firewall blocks all kinds of things including sites like these, which it classes as "anonymizers" and also, annoyingly, senduit and yousendit as they're used file sharing.

I've got access to YSI and such, so I may have to try this. Tomorrow though. I'm going home now.